Great White Shark Facts
Great white sharks will forever be linked with terror after the movie “Jaws.” In truth, they are considered the ultimate ocean predator as you’ll see with these great white shark facts.
Great White Shark Facts
There are about 370 different types of sharks. They have existed on Earth in one species or another for over 350 million years. Put another way, sharks were here before the dinosaurs. While there may be many species of sharks, any discussion has to start with the great white shark.
- A great white shark can go three months without eating.
- Great white sharks will eat any other creature found in the ocean.
- A great white shark loses teeth when striking a meal and will grow thousands during its lifetime.
- A great white shark will eat a meal and immediately start looking for the next prey.
- A great white shark cannot get cancer.
- More than half of sharks give birth to pups, yet are still classified as fish.
- Great white sharks are found in every ocean and at every depth.
- A great white shark can be 20 plus feet long and weigh as much as 4,000 pounds.
- Great white sharks are known to charge boats for no discernible reason.
- A great white shark can see extremely well and can differentiate different colors.
- Great white sharks have only a few predators that attack them – man, orcas and other great white sharks. Porpoises and sperm whales, however, are able to defend themselves against great whites by attacking the sharks.
- Great white sharks are the only ocean predator known to stick their head above the surface of the water to look at prey.
- Next to nothing is known about the mating habits of great white sharks, but we do know they give birth to five to 10 pups at a time.
Nobody knows how long great white sharks live. The best guess is 40 years. - Great white sharks are hard to keep alive in captivity because they refuse to eat.
- Most great whites in captivity die after 10 or 11 days.
- On one occasion, a female great white remained in captivity for almost 200 days in San Francisco before being released into captivity.
- The great white shark is an endangered species.
- More people are killed by dogs each year than have been killed by great whites in recorded history.
After the movie “Jaws” came out, the reputation of the great white shark as a predator was set in stone. Millions of people were afraid to go into lakes much less the ocean. While this was obviously overkill, these great white shark facts reveal a ferocious and fearsome creature.
